We spend an insurmountable amount of money on gaming centres, equipment, accessories, and, of course, the games themselves. We get everything set up, controllers are charged, phone is on, do not disturb, and we… rush through the game as fast as possible?
Welcome, folks, to the speedrunning community.
What Is Speedrunning?
Merriam-Webster defines speedrunning as the “timed playing of a video game in which the aim is to complete a game or portion of a game as quickly as possible.”
This idea of trying to get so well-versed in a game that you can do it as fast as humanly possible is nothing new. In fact, speedrunning has been around nearly as long as video games have been around. The first game to have a timed element to their game was Dragster, a 1980 racing game designed for the Atari.
However, speedrunning as we see it today was largely inspired by late 80s and early 90s games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Super Metroid, and Prince of Persia, with each of these games noting your total time spent within a level.
Speedrunning Today
With the expansion of video games, speedrunning became a broader term. Sure, it still refers to how quickly you can complete every level in Super Mario World, or the fastest time in your favourite racing game—but with the inclusion of management sims and open-world games, speedrunning is largely dependent on the rules decided by the community. It could mean how quickly you get to a final boss, how fast you can achieve perfection, or maybe how quickly you can move through the world.
There also tends to be a separation in folks who deliberately use glitches in the game versus those who prefer to reach this success naturally. One isn’t necessarily “better” than the other, and really comes down to a matter of preference.
Some speedrun times for popular video games are as follows:
- Super Mario Bros.: 4 minutes and 54 seconds
- Ocarina of Time: 3 minutes and 47 seconds
- Minesweeper, Expert level: Under 30 seconds
- Auto-generated Minecraft world: 6 minutes and 50 seconds
- Mario Kart Wii: 59 minutes and 29 seconds
What’s The Point?
Despite what was said above, nobody turns on a video game for the first time and attempts to speedrun it. Speedrunning is a well-loved hobby that offers an even bigger challenge to those who have already completed a game once or several times before.
It also makes the most out of the high amount of money we often find ourselves paying for video games, offering near-infinite replay value. It’s also an opportunity to learn more about the game, how to manipulate its mechanics, what glitches can be used, how to efficiently move through the world, and so on and so forth.
Lastly, people speedrun for fun. It’s a great way to reference how quickly you move through a game, how your skills improve over time, and for a bit of friendly competition between friends or strangers.
Sure, it's not for everyone, but speedrunning does offer a unique ability for connection, motivation, and goal-setting, as folks get to do what they love most—absolutely tear through their favorite game.
